Our Faculty

Nathan Cummings

Education Director Nathan Cummings has created, coordinated, and administered theater activities for youth for more than 20 years. He has worked with children as young as 3 years old all the way up to 18-year-old high-school seniors.

In addition to leading classes at Cinnabar, Nathan has coordinated school tours for San Francisco’s New Conservatory and staged shows with more than 200 children in San Jose. He performed and taught on tours to all 48 states in the continental United States, including 60 rural communities in the West with the Hampstead Players, 45 cities in the Midwest and South with the National Touring Theatre, and 75 cities on the East Coast and in the Midwest with TheatreWorks USA.

A graduate of both the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts and the Conservatory of Theatre at Webster University in St. Louis, Nathan also has extensive experience as an actor and director in his own right. For Cinnabar’s Young Rep, he has staged The Grapes of Wrath, Little Shop of Horrors, Macbeth, Once on This Island, Rent, Romeo & Juliet, Seussical, and You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown. For Cinnabar’s professional season, he directed City of Angels and Driving Miss Daisy as well as performing in 110 in the Shade, Arcadia, Crimes of the Heart, The Pavilion, She Loves Me, and We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay! He also recently appeared in The Full Monty at 6th Street Playhouse.

A native of Northern California, Nathan has lived in New York, Seoul, and Shanghai – but he has made Petaluma his home for the past six years. He is the proud papa of Dareia Helena Cummings and Beatrix Io Cummings.

Joseph Favalora

Joseph Favalora is delighted to be working with Cinnabar’s Young Rep. He recently received two awards for excellence in choreography from the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle for his work on Fiddler on the Roof at Cinnabar and Thoroughly Modern Millie at 6th Street Playhouse.

As a performer, Joseph’s professional Broadway credits span 15 years and include Beauty and the Beast, Cathy Rigby’s Peter Pan, Mr. Mistoffelees in the national tour of Cats, and Baby John in the international tour of West Side Story.

He is currently in the theater arts program at Santa Rosa Junior College. He is driven by his lifelong love of the performing arts and his goal to create an original work that will be performed throughout the world. Much love and thanks to his partner, Dr. J. Davis Mannino, for his untiring support.

Mary Gannon Graham

Bio coming soon.

Dezi Gallegos

Dezi Gallegos began as a student in Cinnabar’s Young Rep when he was 9 years old. He went on to become a volunteer counselor for the Young Rep’s summer camp, co-directed its holiday production of Annie, and is extraordinarily excited to serve as head teacher for Beauty and the Beast.

Dezi is a local playwright, director, and teacher. He was 14 when he co-wrote and assistant directed the award-winning (and now published script) for Prop 8 Love Stories, which received performances throughout the Bay Area before traveling to New York for a two-week off-Broadway run. At 16, he penned, directed, and co-starred in the uproarious comedy Quite Dead at Cinnabar. At 18, his one man-show God Fights the Plague premiered at Cinnabar and received a 16-show run at The Marsh in San Francisco – and his play Hamlet’s Orphans, performed with a cast of children aged 9-14, was nominated for Best Original Script by the SF Bay Area Theater Critics Circle and a SOTA Award for Best New Play.

Now 19 years old, Dezi recently received the inaugural Annette Lust Award for Promising Theatrical Talent and has written a new drama, Yesterday Again, which is playing this summer at 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa and the Lucky Penny Community Arts Center in Napa. He is also a film student at USC.

He frequently plays with the Skywalker Symphony (as they call it) for major motion picture soundtracks and major video game productions such as Disney K’nex and StarCraft. He has also played with the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Ballet, and Lamplighters.

He received his Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance from Oberlin College in Ohio and his Master of Musical Arts degree in piano performance from Yale University.

Sandy Riccardi

Sandy Riccardi’s first acting job in New York City was telling the restaurant manager that she had experience as a waitress. He bought it, so there she stayed. She spent 11 years performing in NYC as a member of the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players, Westchester Broadway Theater, Playwrights Preview Productions, and more. She received her Master of Music in vocal performance from Manhattan School of Music and her Bachelor of Music degree from Converse College in Spartanburg, SC.

Cinnabar also has many other staff members and volunteers who work behind the scenes to support our professional shows, fundraising events, and administrative needs. Click here to meet the whole team!

Banner photo The cast of 'You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown' (photo by Natasha McGuire)